Spain Sentences Imam For Advice On Beating Wives

The World - In Brief

January 15, 2004

MADRID -- A Spanish court sentenced an imam to 15 months in prison Wednesday for writing a book instructing husbands how to beat their wives without leaving bruises. A lawyer for the Egyptian-born imam, Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, 44, vowed to appeal, telling state radio the ruling was unjust. The Barcelona court found Mustafa guilty of provoking violence on the basis of gender in his book Women in Islam, published in 2000.